animal studies of attachment

Question 1

Harlow’s hypothesis?

Answer 1

attachment was based off of the quality of comfort within the relationship rather than who feeds the child. Emotional support is more significant

Question 2

Harlow procedure?

Answer 2

• created two wire mothers for the 8 monkeys
• for half of the monkeys, the cloth covered mother had the milk and for the other half the normal wire mother had the milk
• measurements were made of which mother the monkeys spent the most time with

Question 3

Harlow findings?

Answer 3

all 8 monkeys spent the most time with the cloth covered mother. When frightened they went to the cloth covered mother. This is because the cloth covered mother offered more contact comfort

Question 4

Long lasting effects of Harlow’s study?

Answer 4

the monkeys developed to be socially abnormal, froze when approached by other monkeys. They were also sexually abnormal.
They only recovered if they spent time with their peers within the critical period (0-3 months)

Question 5

weakness : confounding variable

Answer 5

The two heads of the mothers were different which could’ve acted as a confounding variable (the monkeys may have found the wire mother more frightening)
- lacks internal validity

Question 6

weakness : ethics

Answer 6

caused long term emotional harm, however may say its justified because it has significantly developed our understanding about attachment.

Question 7

weakness : animal/human generalisation

Answer 7

we can’t generalise animal studies to human behaviour because humans differ in important ways. It can be used as a useful pointer within attachment but research has to be carried out in humans for more accurate results

Question 8

Lorenz procedure

Answer 8

• divided gosling eggs into 2 groups
• group 1 in incubator - group 2 with mother
  Lorenz wanted to test the effects of imprinting

Question 9

Lorenz findings

Answer 9

• incubator group were first exposed to Lorenz and became imprinted on him, and showed no recognition to their natural mother.

Question 10

What did Lorenz state about the critical period for imprinting?

Answer 10

• if the animal isn’t exposed to a moving object within the first two days of life, it will not imprint.

Question 11

Lorenz study long lasting effects

Answer 11

• stated imprinting was irreversible - a goose called Martina slept with him every night
• he also found that imprinting had an effect on later sexual preferences, they will choose to mate with a similar object they imprinted on.

Question 12

Supporting evidence for Lorenz study

Answer 12

Guiton - chicks exposed to yellow rubber glove and imprinted on it - later on tried to mate with it

Question 13

a criticism of Lorenz’s imprinting theory

Answer 13

• it is not irreversible like Lorenz stated

- Guiton found that the chicks engaged in normal sexual behaviour when they spent time with more of their own species